Mathis felt the shaking of the earth. There was a tremor beneath as she paced herself in the halls- like the footsteps of giants growing closer and closer. The golden orbs affixed on the walls dimmed and broke into fragments, leaving nothing but darkness in her wake.

"What do you want?" Mathis conjured a silver mote afloat on her hand. She then chanted a spell, with white flowing lights rushing out from the mote and gathering behind her, forming a colossal armored spirit towering like a building. The spirit gleamed in brilliance as it wielded its giant sword against the darkness.

An ethereal voice- eerie and hollow- screeched from the far side of the halls where the shadows gathered. Green miasma started to seep in from the wooden walls and floors, gathering in the darkness to form a humanoid shape that glowed a sickly green. The silhouette held two giant horns on its forehead, with eyes flaring green, and a black robe hiding the rest of its features.

"You know what I want."

"No I… really don't." Mathis said as she held her hand against the demon, commanding the giant spirit to attack. The spirit did not move. It instead only resisted the green metal chains now binding it, with its arms shackled to the ground.

"The god if this place hasn't told you?" The demon inched closer to Mathis, with each step a tremor shaking the entirety of the halls. Its footsteps left behind greenfire, with the sounds of souls screeching inside his robes as if it were a cage. "Of the god whom he stole everything from?"

It held out its sickly green hand. Its hand burned in greenfire as it sent out rivers of miasma towards Mathis. The fairy queen tried to move, however green chains bound her as if she was paralyzed.

The miasma engulfed her face, seeping into her eyes and mouth.

For a second nothing- just the still body of Mathis standing absently as if she was possessed. Then from the fairy's chest came out a soul. The soul resembled Mathis, however the soul's face was distorted to a scream as it was pulled out from her body.

The soul held Mathis' screams like a cage. It drifted through the cold air across the halls, and with a hand from the demon- it grabbed and absorbed it. Once the soul seeped and vanished into its hands- the screams stopped. The body of Mathis then contorted to a sick shape, bending and breaking with sickly lumps growing like parasites on her skin with worms writhing on her body as it shifted into a giant blob of disease- seven thin limbs growing out of it. A face eventually formed from the blob, and it was the face of a screaming Mathis.

The ugly blob then contorted back into the normal fairy form of Mathis; a dead smile fixed on the fairy's face like a doll.

The world around started to rumble with the sound of ghost bells.

. . .

"Hey." Nico said.

"Heya." Saira said.

They were sitting beside the creek, the gentle flowing water setting the atmosphere between them. A small crab with four claws greeted them- scuttling over pebbles and stones just before it dug into the mud.

"About the other day-"

Saira immediately covered her face with her hands, her words coming out muffled and inaudible.

"I was very rude, and I didn't mean what I said."

Saira continued to speak through muffled noise, washed away by the sound of flowing water.

"You know I can't hear you right?"

"I said, forget about it." Saira dropped her hands, revealing a fluff red face staring back at Nico. She then threw a playful jab to his chest.

"You don't honestly expect me to forget, do you?"

"Nope." Saira stared back to the creek. She paused for a second, carefully picking the words stuck behind her mouth.

"I really meant it, you know."

"Sorry." Nico sighed. "I just blurted out things I didn't mean, and I ended up hurting you."

"If there was an award for the cheesiest line ever that would be it." Saira nudged her shoulder to Nico's.

"So… we cool?"

"Not yet. I still didn't get a proper answer."

"You're annoying."

"I'm waiting."

"Aight, fine." Nico threw up his hands in surrender. He then took a second to pick his thoughts, careful of what he wanted to say.

"Ever since the start- you know, when we woke up in that glade, I always thought you were an interesting person." Nico played with his fingers as if to distract himself. "Fast forward to now, I came to like you- a lot."

A playful grin crept up on Saira's face.

"That's it?"

"What do you mean that's it?"

"I thought you prepared a speech or something. I mean it literally took you two whole days to come talk to me."

"Nah, that's it." Nico said as he glanced back to the others- laughing behind them. "Great, they're making fun of me now."

"So… what now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Saira trailed her fingers over the creek, imitating a person walking on water. "I like you. And you like me. Do you wanna make out or what?"

Nico paused, staring at Saira as if the fate of the entire world was resting on his response. His shoulders tensed, his heart ran, but in the end all he let out was a sigh.

"I don't know, I never thought I'd get this far."

Saira let out a laugh.

"Things are still very new for me- coupled with all this fantasy thing going on, I'm not sure I can even juggle having a girlfriend at the moment."

"So you're basically saying that I need to wait."

"Yeah, until everything settles down."

Saira leaned on Nico, the sunlight peeking through the leaves as it settled on their skin. "I'm not a patient girl, you know. If you don't hurry up, some other guy might just take me away on a magical unicorn."

. . .

Andrei shifted through the forest on branches in complete silence, his leather robe swaying in the cold night breeze. He spotted a flickering light through the thickets of woods- giant trolls camping around a fire as the smell of cooked meat wafted through the air.

Andrei called to another person from behind, gesturing for him to stay put. It was Alex, with his short white hair gleaming against the moonlight. Andrei then gestured for them to meet below.

"How many?" Alex said over a slight British accent, meeting up with Andrei on the ground.

"Just two." Andrei glanced at the light through the woods. "I take left and you right. Go on my signal."

The two waded through the bushes- careful not to make any sound. As soon as they came close, they pounced on Andrei's signal. One troll had a dagger slit its throat while the other exploded into chunks of blood and muscle like gory fireworks.

"Good job." Alex gave Andrei a bloody fist bump, his gaze then falling to Andrei's arm.

"What's that?"

"This?" Andrei said, pointing to the bracelet wrapped around his wrist. "Just a good luck charm."

"From Earth?"

"No," Andrei stared at the bracelet. "Someone bought it for me back in Lelselone."